Monday, March 10, 2014

Mirror Images

All of these antenna-TV stations have me glued to watching too much '70s TV. Or in this case, revisiting childhood faves. I just caught the "Seven Million Dollar Man" episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man." I loved that episode as a kid, and I was surprised how well it holds up. Monte Markham plays a man even more bionic than Lee Majors. When the power goes to his head, Steve Austin must bring in someone who's a virtual twin, but even moreso.

This is a great concept in science and fantasy fiction. The hero must defeat someone with all the special abilities he has. In many ways it's more difficult than battling giant robots or evil scientists. How do you beat someone who has everything you have?

You could easily dismiss it as cheesy 70s stuff, but this is not a new concept. It probably goes back to Greek mythology, but if you want to look a little closer, look at General Zod from Superman comics and two of his films. Zod is a Kryptonian survivor, just as powerful as Superman in every way, but evil!

More recently, look at the "Faith" story arc from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Another slayer who is Buffy's match. How do you take her down?

Does this only apply to the fantasy genre?

No. Watch "Magnum Force." Dirty Harry must battle a squad of renegade cops all ideologically the same as Harry. See, story wise, nothing's really new and it can be applied to every genre.